et non sapientior

(Ghoulish House of Horrors, courtesy of the Squid Terrorist)
And to the utter and complete amazement of Major Dad and myself,

9 out of 10 kids cheerfully say “Thank You!“.

Wow. I mean W. O. W.! And the few who forget either have a mouthpiece that prevents speech or still yell Happy Halloween as they escape into the night with their booty. It’s been incredibly heartwarming and fun. The Happiest Night of the Year !!
Our house, with it’s tasteful plethora of Jack-O-Lanterns and multitude of lights.

A Roman Catholic high school has ordered its students to remove their online diaries from the Internet, citing a threat from cyberpredators.
Students at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta appear to be heeding a directive from the principal, the Rev. Kieran McHugh.
McHugh told them in an assembly earlier this month to remove any personal journals they might have or risk suspension.

Then Father McHugh was a happy-go-lucky young Irish priest known affectionately as “the Leprechaun”. And we (Class of ’74) managed enough excitement on our own, without having to post about it.
(Strange how everyone knew my name in a regional high school. I’ve always wondered about that.)
Thanks for the memories, Kate.

Well, it’s Saturday and as Suzette figured out that means I’m drinking cooking!
First off, the beverage:
The Evil Clown™ had the Rutherford Grove 2000 Merlot on sale. Normally $30.99 it was discounted to $11.99. Muito Bom, as they say.
Ummmm, tasty. Lots of fruit, somewhat higher acidity than one would normally expect in a merlot, but good rasperry flavors. But whoa Nelly, there’s a lot of sediment. Decant this puppy for guests!
Tonight we’re having Spare Ribs!
Take that wussy-assed town councils in England!

Because this d*ckhead MT can’t remember what I wrote and saved from one fast forward to the next…and because the first question doesn’t include an answer that contains “lives for this 24/7 and dances naked in the moonlight with dead chickens at the first frost, she’s so freakin’ happy”…although one is gratified to see the “Alien” included in a roster of Hollywood’s greatest scary guys…even though, according to my calculations, angry pumpkins are only 7% of the people infantile enough to take this quiz…so thank you, peteb, for yet another miniscule, quantifying factor of my life…but I’m not bitter. Why? Because it’s the

Police were unable to account for 240 officers on the 1,450-member force following Katrina. The force has been investigating them to see if they left their posts during the storm.

Well, acting superintendent Warren Riley, I’ve got a calculator that says “240 divided by 1450 comes out to…16.5% of your officers” hit the road or vaporized exactly when they were most desperately needed. Creeping up on 20% of your police force pulling chocks is pretty representative in my book.

Ok, so I’ve read through the whole indictment.
This is all we get after 2 years’ work? I’m underwhelmed. I ain’t no stinkin’ lawyer, but it seems all they have is that this guy said he didn’t have sex with that women to the Grand Jury.

A great article in the NY Sun on the corruption and cronyism going on between the National Park Service and Circle Line here in NY:

Circle Line-Statue of Liberty Ferry Incorporated, which next month will ask the National Park Service for permission to raise its fares, has apparently paid for more than $1.7 million of its own operations by using a fund meant to pay for capital improvements at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

One of the most outrageous bits in the article is how Circle Line took $100,000 from the federal capital improvements fund, which means your and my tax dollars, and gave it as a ‘donation’ to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation. I’m sure they were properly feted at the Black Tie Gala Event for their kindness. Bastards.
The collusion this points to between certain Park “Service” employees and Circle Line is disgusting, and horribly corrupt. You want some pork to cut? Here’s a great spot to start.
Thanks to the NY Sun for great reporting.

I have only two men out of my company and 20 out of some other company. We need support, but it is almost suicide to try to get it here as we are swept by machine gun fire and a constant barrage is on us. I have no one on my left and only a few on my right. I will hold.
1stLt. Clifton B. Cates, USMC
in Belleau Wood, 19 July 1918

I don’t think so. I just don’t like this whole program, and think we could have had an aircraft already in service had we better spent the $ elsewhere.

An Air Force version of the V-22 tilt-rotor Osprey aircraft last week experienced a condensation stall of both engines after flying into a cloud at 18,000 feet, presumably because of icing problems, sources have told the Project On Government Oversight. The aircraft, CV-22 #6, was on a routine flight to Edwards Air Force base in California. It did not recover from the stall until it had descended to warmer air at about 10,000 feet, the sources said.

If this is confirmed, they really need to roll a few heads about the V-22.